It was about a 2.5 hr drive to Aviemore to stop at the CairnGorm mountain railway to take a tram up to the top of the mountain and have a nice lunch at the restaurant at the top which was recommended on Trip Advisor. This is the only time, so far, that Trip Advisor has led me astray..the "restaurant" was a cafeteria. A very very small cafeteria. We were hungry, but decided to wait to go back down and into the town to eat. The view from the top was nice, windy - the wind was so fast it nearly pushed you backward!
After lunch (which we finished at 4:20!) we had about an hour and 5 min drive to get to our 5:30 activity on Loch Ness - knife and tomahawk throwing! As exciting and fun as that was, the drive from Aviemore to there was thrilling. I was driving for most of it, and when we turned off the highway and onto a windy, single track, dual direction, twisty, turny road to the Loch the fun began! And we had 31 miles of it to drive. The speed limit on this goat path? 60mph! Jay took a video, I'll try to attach it.
Finally, after about 12 miles I said to Jay - you HAVE to drive on this road, it's so much fun. So we pulled into one of the passing areas (where you can pull off and allow cars coming the other way to get by you) and we switched.
Jay had a tonne of fun driving too, he was a little obsessed with what the speed limit was - he wanted to make sure he was going at least the speed limit! I got a few photos out the window.
When we got to the Inch Hotel to do our throwing, we waited a couple of minutes for Iain, our instructor. He got there and did a quick tutorial on how to hold the knives and tomahawks and then we started throwing at the target. Jay was a natural (better than Iain)..I sucked.
When we finished and got into the car and put the Loch Ness Lodge into the gps to get to our hotel - way looked and Jay said "how far to the hotel?...15 miles? AWESOME!"
We started driving and got to a roundabout shortly after. An older man in a Mercedes station wagon pulled in front of us and Jay said "I'm going to keep up with him and see how fast you're supposed to go on this road". Well that guy took off and Jay couldn't make up any ground on him! He kept laughing whenever he got around the corner and the car ahead was gone out of sight. He said to me "if I was driving like this at home you would be telling me to slow down, I'm driving too fast..." I said "and now I'm just giggling?" He said "yeah, it's weird". What can I say, I'm on vacation! That drive was fun!
We pulled up to the Loch Ness Lodge Hotel...
Looks ok, right? Except it was attached to this...
Nessieland! (See the hotel on the left there?) I swear this is NOT where I booked...but now I have that sick feeling in my stomach and I wonder...no, it can't be! So we're online, trying to see where it all could have gone so wrong when my phone rings and it's the guy from our canyoning tour tomorrow...I mention we're trying to find our hotel and he very graciously walks me through finding the right way to the right hotel.
The Loch Ness Lodge...Ahhhh...much better.
We get checked into our room. 
And there is complimentary cognac
I feel much better.
Off to bed...long day tomorrow!
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